New York – The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law announced today that Patricia Bauman and Lawrence B. Pedowitz have been elected Co-Chairs of the Center’s Board of Directors. Ms. Bauman and Mr. Pedowitz previously served as Vice Chairs on the Board, contributing significantly to program development, fundraising, governance, and management of the Center. They succeed James E. Johnson, who served as Chair for seven years.
Patricia Bauman is President of the Bauman Foundation. She has shaped its activities at the intersection of human health and environment and has been a leader in fostering right-to-know and open government initiatives. In recent years, the Foundation has also supported civic participation, voter registration and outreach and election protection. She is on the Steering Committee of the Funders’ Committee on Civic Participation. She is a Vice-Chair of the Natural Resources Defense Council and serves on the boards of Montefiore Medical Center in New York and Catalist LLC. She is a graduate of Radcliffe/Harvard College, Columbia University School of Public Health, and Georgetown University Law Center. She has been a member of the Brennan Center Board for four years.
Lawrence Pedowitz has been a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz since 1980. He heads Wachtell Lipton’s white collar and regulatory practice group. Mr. Pedowitz was a law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly and to United States Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. He served as chief appellate attorney and as chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, was vice chairman of the Legal Aid Society, and is a co-founder of New York Law Firms for the Homeless. He is a graduate of Union College and NYU School of Law, and has been a member of the Brennan Center Board for twelve years.
“The Brennan Center is thrilled to have Patricia and Larry assume leadership,” said Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center. “They are passionate advocates for the work of the Center and the values and vision of Justice Brennan. They will lead our Board at a moment of strategic urgency for the Center, when the fight for voting rights, fair elections, access to the courts, racial justice and the rule of law are especially intense. We so deeply appreciate Jim’s leadership these seven years, and are grateful that the Board will continue to be a source of strength for the organization.”